It became the most powerful in the history of mankind, which had documentary confirmation. And the consequences of the eruption had a huge impact on the fate of the entire planet and our civilization
In Europe, the average temperature drops by 1-2 degrees Celsius. For several years, frosts occurred in July – August, and the first snow fell in September.
In Russia, this led to crop failures. And since they lasted several years in a row, mass hunger began. This was the reason for the fall in the popularity of Boris Godunov among the people, which cleverly took advantage of False Dmitry. So the distant Peruvian volcano with the unpronounceable name sent Russia during the Time of Troubles.
Eight hundred megaton
Although all the troubles of people can not be put on volcanoes, one powerful eruption is really able to radically change the life of the whole world. History with the eruption of the tambourus volcano in 1815 – confirmation of this. For its consequences were felt by those who never heard about grief with that name. However, about everything in order.
Tambors, a mountain of 4300 meters high, was located on the Indonesian island of Sumbava. By the beginning of the 19th century, this volcano was considered inactive. And so it was until 1812, when Tambora made a number of signs to understand that he was waking up: the earth in the area of the volcano began to publish a rumble, and a dark cloud appeared above it.
People who lived in the vicinity were worried, but hardly any of them could predict the scale of the disaster that occurred on April 5, 1815.
If you express this in impassive numbers, then the deadly “performance” that the Tambor arranged reached the volcanic eruptions of seven points on the scale of volcanic eruptions. The escaped energy was equivalent to an explosion of 800 megaton TNT.
150–180 cubic kilometers of volcanic material erupted outward. Tambobora lost more than a third of its height – at present it does not exceed 2800 meters. The roar of the explosion was heard for at least 2600 kilometers – which plunged the inhabitants of the vast territories into panic. The land within a radius of 1300 kilometers was strewn with ashes.
There were so many ash that at a distance of up to 600 km from Tambore, impenetrable darkness reigned. Waves of the tsunami hit the islands of Indonesia, reaching four meters in h8. At the same time, the tambora did not calm down immediately – all new explosions of the volcano were heard until July 15.
The first from this disaster were the lands in the immediate vicinity of the volcano. Almost the entire island of Sumbava became unsuitable for life, and the Principality of the Principality of Pekat, Sangar and Tambobora ceased to exist – their entire territory was covered with a meter layer of hot ash.
The exact number of the dead could not be calculated. Researchers call the figure of 10 thousand people who died directly during the eruption. But when they begin to count those whose lives carried away hunger, the number varies from 48 to 92 thousand.
“The terrible conditions, due to which the number of inhabitants has greatly reduced, is shocking. The remains of corpses lying on the side of the road, almost completely empty villages and destroyed houses, the survivors scattered in search of food, ”said the English officer Filips, who visited Sumbava shortly after the disaster.
According to him, the surviving mowing of cruel diarrhea. “Locals believe that it was caused by drinking water mixed with ash;Horses also die in large numbers with similar symptoms, ”the officer added.
Poisonous veil
But the consequences of the disaster affected by no means Sumbava and neighboring islands. They turned out to be so extensive that some researchers believe that Tambor “helped” another volcano, who was somewhere in the southwestern part of the Pacific and also exploded around the same years.
In addition to ash, the eruption threw into the stratosphere huge masses of sulfur oxide – a colorless gas with a characteristic pungent odor, very toxic in high concentration. At an altitude of 30-50 km above the ground, this gas, connecting to water steam, turned into sulfuric acid. And this poisonous veil enveloped the planet.
The suspension of microscopic drops of sulfuric acid reflected the warm infrared rays of the sun, not letting them to the ground. In a number of regions, clouds of impenetrable dry fog have formed in the sky, blushing in sunlight. Neither rain nor winds could disperse this fog. As expected, the temperature around the world fell-somewhere by 0.4-0.7 ° C, and somewhere at 3-5 ° C.
It took several months to ensure that the air streams were smashed on the planet “Gifts” Tambores. Therefore, the inhabitants of the planet were fully felt by the fruits of global cooling in the next, 1816. This year became the coldest in the world after the eruption of the Uinaputin. It was he who went down in history under the name “year without summer”.
In March 1816, the temperature on the North American continent continued to be winter. In April and May there were unnaturally a lot of rains and hail. Further it got worse. So, the inhabitants of the United States complained that in some states snow fell in June.
The newspaper, published in Norfolka, was a Virginia, complained: “Now is mid -July, and we still did not have what could be called in the summer <..> The sun at this time, as a rule, was hidden, and the cloudy sky is cloudy;The air was wet and unpleasant, and often so cold that he made a fireplace with a welcome salvation. “.
Historian from Massachusetts William J. Atkins reports: “severe frosts were observed monthly;It was snowing on June 7 and 8, and it was so cold that the crops were destroyed, even the roots froze … Corn in early autumn was so frozen that it was not ripe and hardly cleaned by cleaning. There was not enough bread, prices rose, and the poor were in a difficult situation due to a lack of food ”.
No less than the United States, Canada suffered – from June 6 to 10, 1816, snow fell in the vicinity of Quebec, the thickness of the snow cover reached 30 cm. The season of extreme colds dragged on the continent for more than three months, inflicting a crushing blow to agriculture. The crops froze, from the demon began to die cattle. Soon this turned out to be a lack of products that radically rise in price.
In Europe and in the Middle East, a sharp deterioration in climatic conditions led to a typhoid epidemic. Crops of potatoes, wheat and oats died on the fields. Food prices flew to heaven-by the spring of 1817, the grain rose ten times!
Desperate people began to leave their homes. Those who had any savings tried to migrate to other, more prosperous, in their opinion, countries-primarily, of course, to the USA, where tens of thousands of Europeans moved.
However, internal migration began in the United States itself – many left the east coast and moved to more fertile lands in the West. “Year without summer” helped the creation of the so -called “American Hartland” – the states of the Middle West, which have no way out to either the Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean.
Those European poor people who did not have money for a ticket to the overseas Territory often started all heavy – robbed grocery warehouses and food shops, rebelled, leaving the flags “bread or blood”, and government agencies set fire.
Hungry, exhausted people were dying of typhoid – in total, in Europe, the epidemic claimed the lives of more than 65 thousand people. The panic was amplified by unusual snow that fell in different European regions – mixed with ashes, he acquired a red or brown tint.
In Switzerland, the Jetro glacier began to grow at such a pace that a new lake quickly arose at his foot. Local residents tried to restrain it with a dam, but forty -four people died in the seething waters.
In India, local monsoons temporarily changed their routes – which again led to the death of the crop in the fields and hunger. A new strain of cholera arose in Bengal, which immediately started his deadly harvest. The delay of summer monsoons caused heavy rains that contributed to the spread of the epidemic.
Mass hunger began in China, where the failure of the usual temperature regime led to floods that destroyed crops.
The birth of a monster
According to the results of 1816, in the USA he was called “thousand eight hundred to death frozen”. But in fact, it is time to talk about “three years without summer”-for the 1817th and 1818th turned out to be equally difficult. It was the strongest hunger in the 19th century. However, the disaster has turned into many beneficial consequences.
So, it was the “year without summer” that contributed to the emergence of a social security system. The first step in this direction was the monarch of the Little German Kingdom of Württemberg Wilhelm I, who, trying to help his inertaled people, created a network of free canteens and hospitals for the poor, mutual assistance cash register for peasants.
Wilhelm also established an “agricultural laboratory” for the introduction of advanced agricultural methods – later it is transformed to the University of Gogenheyam, the leading European Center for Agronomy.
The social protection of the population was concerned in the UK and France – accepting special state programs designed to save people from hunger.
The lean oats, which led to the mass case of horses, helped the emergence of a new type of transport – in 1817 the German inventor Karl Draz came up with a bicycle that patented a year later.
“Year without summer” led to the appearance of another outstanding invention – mineral fertilizers. The concept of their application was developed by the outstanding chemist of Eustus von Libikh, who was thirteen years old in 1816.
The hardships experienced in that year left such a trace in the minds of young Justus that he, having become a scientist, set himself the task of doing everything possible in order not to allow more such hunger.
The poems of Lord Byron, written during these years, are replete with complaints about a gloomy sky and constant bad weather. Byron with friends spent the summer of 1816 at the Swiss villa belonging to young Mary Shelley and her wife. Due to the cold and constant rains, the Londoners were forced to sit at the villa is free-and in order to pass the time, Byron proposed to arrange a competition for the most terrible story. It was then that Mary Shelley came up with her “Frankenstein”.
Photo: Rob Wood / ST Martins Press;SHUTTERSTOCK / FOTODOM;Claus lunau;New England Historical Society;Rik Stoetman / Past Horizons